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The Political Dimension of Faith is Indispensable” - Bishop Baez of Nicaragua

Auxiliary Bishop, Silvio Jose Baez of Managua, Nicaragua speaks out about the violence the people of Nicaragua are being subjected to at the hands of President Ortega's regime.

Three moments since April 18 have strongly marked Silvio Jose Baez, the auxiliary bishop of Managua and one of Nicaragua’s most respected priests, called “quarrelsome” by President Daniel Ortega. One of those moments was the murder of the first young man by the National Police near the Polytechnic University (Upoli). He cried as he watched the news that day, realizing he was watching the social uprising he had predicted but had never imagined would come so soon.

The night before April 19 he wrote on his Twitter account: “I call on Daniel Ortega and his wife to halt the violence and repression. Don’t put the country’s peace in danger! Know how to listen, dialogue and be mature enough to rectify so many errors for the good of Nicaragua. Be reasonable!”

However reason wasn’t to be found at the presidential compound of El Carmen, and as of July 19th, Baez went from “quarrelsome” to being considered a “coup-monger” together with the rest of Nicaragua’s Episcopal Conference in the eyes of Daniel Ortega’s regime, which has by now caused the death of more than three hundred people, thousands of wounded, and hundreds tortured and imprisoned.

His peace initiatives in Masaya and Diriamba together with Cardinal Brenes are the other two experiences that have most moved him since the civic rebellion exploded. On both occasions he again used his Twitter account to call for a halt to the repression. Again the call was ignored.

For Baez, the university students became the country’s moral conscience, heading up an “ethical revolution” that awakened all of society, which out of fear or other motives had been silent or had never had the opportunity to express their deepest desire as citizens.

“I always believed this society was going to wake up,” Monsignor Baez told Niu, “because there were deep-seated structural problems socially, politically and economically. Those young people awakened all of society to the realization that Nicaragua could be different, could be better.”

Please add your name to the Scottish Solidarity with Nicaragua petition calling for an end to the repression at this link